The Arizona sentinel., 1887-01-01
GREAT QUACKS.
Medical Frauds Whose Names Are Re
 corded in the Pages of History.

Medical Frauds Whose Names Are Re- corded in the Pages of History.
 The great London quack of the time of Charles II. was Dr. Thomas SafTold.
 He was originally weaver, but adopt ed the more paying business of pre- tending to cure all diseases and profess ing to foretell the destinies of his pa- tients. The apothecaries of that time not only acted as medical quacks, but also as fortune-tellers. Queen Anne had weak eyes, and was an enthusiastic patron of vulgar ignorance in the form of eye-doctors Two of them she fan cied especially; and one of these, Will jam Reade, she made a Baronet, al- though he was most wretchedly igno- rant, as "Short and Exact Account of All the Diseases Incident to the Eyes, !" which he published, remains to testify. Reade was worthless tailor, but he stepped into fashionable and paying practice after he obtained the royal favor. He was unable to read the book which he wrote (by the hano of scribe), but that made no difference to the wealthy fools, his patrons. The Queens other favorite quack oculist was Roger Grant, retired cobbler and Anabaptist preacher. Grant was in the habit of publish ng minute accounts of his cures, mostly a tissue of lies, but with enough truth interwoven to give q semblance of probability. His favorite plan was to secure some poor person whose sight was imperfect, and after giving him money and medicines for 8 few weeks persuade him to sign test . monial that he had been born blind and had never enjoyed the sense of sight until Providence had led him to Dr. Grant, who had cured him in little more than a month. If he could buy cer- tificate from the clergymen and church wardens of the parish where the alleged patient lived, to the effect that the testi- monial was true, very well; if he could not ob ain genuine documents of th;s kind he could always find people to forge them for a small sum. The recent impudent certificates, apparently signed by numerous prominent people, attest ing the virtues of q brand of bit ters made in an Eastern city, SliON Iuib IuC HUiSho OA Ohio order are still to be found ply ing their infamous trade. The most famous-and learned, for the time physicians of that age, did not disdain to deal in secret nostrums. Thus, Sir Hans Sloane sold an eye salve, and Dr. Meade remedy for hydrophobia- Con- sequently the quacks were justified in making what they could out of a public which was not too intelligent to De sw wndled by their most renowned phy- sicians. The doctors, at least, had no reasonable ground for complaint. In the Spectator for July 27, 17l4, there is an amusing account of a typ cal quack of the period, and Steele has recorded some capital anecdotes of these gentry. One of them claimed he could cure cataracts ''because he had lost an eye in the Emperor's service" This evidence of ability was thought all sufficient by the good people who patronized him. One fellow, calling himself Dr. Katter- felto, travelled about with large cage containing a number of black cats, which seemed equal to a modern diploma in the way of inspiring confidence in hls powers. -ISt. Louis GLObe-DemO crat..